Slidable door for cabinets



Oct. 2, 1951 e. F. HOFFERBERTH SLIDABLE DOOR FOR CABINETS Filed July 14, 1949 IN V EN TOR. 650x 12. F. l/ornm anew-ll. BY W /%4M 6 M.

III! A TTGRNEYS.

Patented Oct. 2, 1951 LIDABLE DDOR FOR CABINETS George F. Hofferberth, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a

or ra i n. f Delaware Application July 1);, 1949, Serial No. 104, 48

2 Claims. (01. 312-295) invention relates to refrigerators and particularly to a door arrangement therefor.

i. am aware of the fact that refrigerator cabinets having an opening in the top wall thereof, affording access to a refrigerated chamber there-.1 in, have been provided with sliding doors having rollers thereon wherein an end of one door rolls on another door and has its other end supported by and rollable on a single track which supports the doors. Such a door arrangement eliminates the necessity of providing two tracks at different elevations for two doors. Heretofore in provid. in the doors with rollers, o subs n i lly eliminot f i ti n betw n th doors in m v n th m. on their track or u n one ano h e r e s would space the ower fa e o th upper do r a s i ht distan e above the up er a o he ow r do thus n es it in the u of a aske a ng either the upper face of the lower door or the low vfeoe f the ton r door in ord t s al the space between the doors. The use Of Such a as cr t s ction etween th doors w en th y eremoved r lative t one an ther y W p n across the surface of one of the doors and this fri t on et ds the ea y'ro ebi i y o e d o on a r ck. I co template t e imi t on of su h 'easke n a doubl eliabl door r a eme t while at the same t me pro ding m an whereby the doors seal against one another when in close osi ion to pr ent r a vely wa m room air from entering the refrigerated chamber of the refrigerator cabinet,

An object of my invention is to provide an improved arrangement for sealing one door to another door of a double rollable door structure employed to close the access opening of a refrigerated chamber of a refrigerator cabinet.

Another object of my invention is to provide a double rollable door arrangement for opening and closing a chamber access opening in the top wall of a refrigerator cabinet in which are rangement one. end of one door rolls on the top surface of the other door to open a portion of the aooes onen ne nd wh n move nt .ol e cl positi n it moves i a vertical d ec on nd ene e e an e d o 'the o her door to sea he a cess opening,

In. carrying out he foregoing objects it is o fur her and, more spe ific obje t ,o m i ven i tolo'oe e roller means on ne door o the d u door arrangement a redetermined t oe from ts one Whi h o erlaps an end o the other oor upon which i i roll'eo so hat the rol er means past the e d, of he t r d r when both no o .olosed p sition to perm t the -ore e e e o m e downwardly nt o erl ppin sealing engagement with the other door. v

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference be ng had to the accompanyingdrawing, wherein a preferred form is clearly shown.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a low temperature refrigerator cabinet having my door" arrangement embodied therein;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view taken on the line 2--2 of Fig. 1, showing both doors of the present double door arrangement in closed position;

Fig 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing one of the doors of the present door arrangement moved into a partially Open DQSiti n;

Fig, 4 is a fragmentary transverse sectional View taken on the lined-'4 of Fig, 3 showing an end view ofthe doors; an

Fig, 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 5 -5 of Fig. 3 showing the mounting of a roller on one of the doors.

Referring to the drawing, for illustrating my invention, I have shown in Fig, 1 thereof a refrigerator cabinet generally represented by the reference character 8 and having outer metal Panel or wall Cebin 8 include n p ntop metal tank or liner H (see Fig, 2) surrounded by insulating naterial 12 within the walls 9 and forming an op n-t o s r e cham er 1 therein. The cabinet has an elongated opening in i too We oo e oond os t t e pen top of liner [1 and providing access to the chamber 14. An insulated throat structure generally represented by the reference character l5 lines the o e ng in t e c bi t top wal a s co ventional in the art. A machine compartment located. at one end of the cabinet 8 is closed by the louvered panels I6 and houses a refrigerant rans tin de of a clo ed refr e g syste n i elu n an e apo a o h form of a conduit coil ll wrapped around and secured intimate thermal contact with the outer surface of walls of liner II. The refrigerant translating device may be of the type including a motoroompressor unit and a condenser (not shown) and well known to those skilled in the art. Operation of the motor-compressor unit of the re: r ee en ran a g d v e d r c nt l of a therm ta o ot e s it b e de i cau e e orpt en o hea f om cha ber M by e ri erant 1n the evaporator H to cool the interior of the chamb r an causes the ref ig ant to b e e? storage chamber My invention is particularly directed to a novel door arrangement for sealing the cabinet open top or the access'opening leading to the food ber I4 is maintained at a temperature well below freezing for the freezing of food products and storage of frozen foods it is desirable to insure that the access'opening of chamber M is tightly closed except when accessto the chamber is required. 'In the present disclosure a metal frame 2|, having an outwardly directed-flan e 22 at its upper edge and an inwardly directed flange 23 at its lower edge, is forced into and tightly fitted in the opening bounded by the throat structure l5 in the cabinet top wall. The'upper flange 22 extends entirelyaround the frame 2| and engages the cabinet top wall about the'opening therein while the lower flange 23 forms a track 25 extending continuously in a single horizontal plane along-the long sides of the elongated opening in the cabinet top wall. Flange 23 also extends around the end portions of the elongated frame 2| to increase the structural strength of the frame. A first door 21, of any suitable or desirable construction, has a roller 23 on each of its sides and adjacent the ends thereof. The rollers 28 project below the lower surface of door 21 and are rollable upon and along the track 25. A second door 3|, also of any suitable or desirable-construction, has its one end supported upon and rollable'along track 25 by providing on each side thereof a depending bracket 32 to which a roller33 is attached. The other end of door 3|, opposite the rollers 33, overlaps and normally rests upon the end of door 21 when both doors 21 and 3| are closed (see Fig. 2). A roller 34 on each side of door 3| projects from the lower surface thereof and is spaced a predetermined distance from its overlaping end for a purpose to be presently described. As before stated the doors 21 and 3| may be of any suitable or desirable construction and preferably each door carries at its end, adapted to abut against the upright ends of frame 2|, a soft rubber sealing gasket 36 for sealing the doors to the frame when they are moved to closed position as shown in Fig. 2. Each door 21 and 3| is provided with a knob or handle 31 and 38 respectively to facilitate movement of the doors along track 25 on the rollers. The doors 21 and 3| fit snugly against the upright longitudinal side portions of frame 2| and these side portions of the frame serve to guide the doors in their horizontal movement along the track 25. The rollers 28' and 34- are located in recesses provided in the underside of doors 21 and 3| (see Fig. 5) while rollers 33 are secured to the legs of the inverted substantially U-shaped brackets 32. Each roller 28, 33 and 34 is mounted upon a shaft or pin 4| (see Fig. 5) riveted or otherwise suitably secured to the door. As before stated the doors may be of any suitable or conventional construction and they may be of the type including a two-part bounding frame having a plurality of spaced apart layers of plate glass clamped therebetween so as to render the interior of the refrigerated chamber l4 visible through the doors. The two parts 43 and 44 of the door bounding frames may be bolted together or secured to one another in any well known or suitable manner with a strip 45 of molded plastic material clamped therebetween (see Fig. 5) and extending along the one end, opposite the end thereof carrying the gasket 36, and the two sides of each door. It is well known that such molded plastic material readily slides on surfaces of other materials without creating any appreciable I4. Since the interiorof cham- V amount of friction and therefore the strips 45, particularly at the sides of the doors, extend a slight. distance outwardly of the door frames so as to serve to prevent binding of the doors during movement thereof.

When it is desired to gain access to the chamber I4 either'door 21 or 3| maybe moved horizontally relative to the'other to uncover or open a portionof the elongated access opening of chamber M. For example, handle 31 may be grasped and'door 21 moved to the right as viewed in'Figr2 of the drawing. This movement of door 21 causes the upper rounded corner of theend of the'door to strike the rollers 34 and further movement of door 21 causes the rollers 34 and door 31 tobe' lifted upwardly and permits the rollers 34 to roll along the upper surface of 'door 21 to thus open the lefthand side of the chamber access opening. When the rollers 34 ride overthe end of door 21 7 the rollers 34 space the lower surface of door 3| from the upper face of door 21. Uponmov'i-ng the door 21 to the'left to close the access opening of chamber M the end'of door 3|, opposite the gasket end 36, moves past or to the left of the rollers 34 on door 3| and door 3| then drops downwardly into overlappingengagement with the end of door 21. When it is desired to gain access to the interior of chamber l4 at the right hand end thereof as viewed in Fig. 2 of the draw ing, handle 38 is grasped and door 3| moved to the left] This movement'of door 3| causes the rollers 34 to strike door 21 and ride over the upper rounded corner of the end of door 21' whereuponthe lefthand end of door 3| is lifted upwardly, about the rollers 33, relative to door 21 and rollers 34- roll upon the top surface of door 21 to uncover the righthand side of the access opening of chamber H! (see Fig. 3). When door 3| is moved to the right to close the chamber access opening, with the door 21 in closed position, the rollers 34 ride past the end of door 21 and permit the end of door 3| to drop downwardly into overlapping engagementwith the end of door 21 (see Fig. 2).

In my novel double rollable door arrangement the position of the end of door 3| in overlapping engagement with the end of door 21 forms a seal to prevent heat leakage into chamber M at a point between the doors? My novel arrangement of sealing the doors to one another when both doors 21 and 3| are closed eliminates the necessity of providing a sealing gasket or the like on one of the doors in a position wherebythe gasket would drag or scrape on the other door, when the doors are moved relative to one another. Another advantage obtained by dropclosed with the sealing gasket on the end thereof in abutting engagement with the end walls of the access opening. This relieves the user of the refrigerator cabinet of the task of frequently checking the doors to insure that they are tightly closed.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, as may come within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A refrigerator cabinet having a plurality of walls forming a chamber therein, the top wall of said cabinet having an opening therein providing access to said chamber, a first door and a second door cooperating therewith for opening and closing diiTerent portions of said chamber access opening, said second door having a part thereof normally overlapping and supported upon the top of an end portion of said first door, said second door being movable over a substantial portion of said first door in a horizontal direction for opening one portion of said chamber access opening, roller means carried by said second door and adapted, when said second door is moved over said first door, to roll thereon and vertically space said second door from said first door, and said roller means being spaced a sufiicient distance from the end of said overlapping part of said second door to cause said second door to drop downwardly into sealing engagement with said top end portion of said first door when both doors are moved into their closed positions.

2. A refrigerator cabinet having a plurality of walls forming a chamber therein, the top wall of said cabinet having an opening therein providing access to said chamber, means forming a 6 track along two opposed sides of said chamber access opening, a first door and a second door associated with said track and cooperating with one another for opening and closing different portions of said chamber access opening, said second door having a part thereof normally overlapping and supported upon the top of an end portion of said first door, said second door being movable over a substantial portion of said first door in a horizontal direction for opening one portion of said chamber access opening, roller means adjacent each end of said first door and rollable along said track, roller means adjacent one end of said second door and rollable along said track, roller means carried by said second door adjacent said end portion of said first door and adapted, when said second door is moved over said first door, to roll thereon and vertically space said second door from said first door, and said last named roller means being spaced a sumcient distance from the end of said overlapping part of said second door to cause said second door to drop downwardly into sealing engagement with said top end portion of said first door when both doors are moved into their closed positions.

GEORGE F. HOFFERBERTH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,193,347 Bauer Aug. 1, 1916 2,076,835 Young Apr. 13, '1937 2,112,482 Crisman Mar. 29, 1938 2,238,511 Thaxter Apr. 15, 1941 

